Tag: Quilt Show

I spent the day at PIQF with Julie. I had a nice time. I looked at quilts. I looked at vendors. I examined stitching and patterns. I, generally, had a good time.

I found more Scrumptious mini-charms, another Sunnyside mini-charm, a few pieces of fabric, and some Cosmo embroidery floss. I did not buy the Splash Bali Pops or a Sew Steady Table for my Jem. As I said yesterday, there was a story behind the mini charms. After driving home Wednesday, it occurred to me that I could use the mini-charms to make a Midi bag. I knew had the pattern, but wasn’t sure where it was or if I could find it before I went back to the show. So I asked Katie on Twitter and she knew. 108, which meant that I needed to buy some more mini charms. Of course, I went back to the booth to buy more and they were out. I was sad, but it wasn’t the end of the world and I did find some more Sunnyside mini-charms and will probably make a Midi bag out of those as well. I was sad, but undaunted and was pleased to find more of the Scrumptious mini-charms at the Prairie Queens Quilt Shop booth! that is a relatively local shop but one with which I am not familiar. I’ll have to check it out.

6 hours is not enough time to see everything. I feel good about the number of quilts I saw. I am sad that I didn’t see all the vendors, though I know my wallet is happy. I thought the vendors stepped up their game a bit this year. It was nice to see some of the new products out for sale. The vendors were friendlier and their booths were very appealing.

I really liked the quilts. I saw so many that had fabulous design or details. Let’s Go Party! (above)has wonderful lines and those circles amaze me in the way they are made with tiny strips of fabric. The lines of the design are wonderful.

I also really liked the combination of hand embroidery and bright sashing. The combination is unexpected and pleasing. I always like hand embroidery, but I have thought that it needed to be freshened up a bit, in general. This piece has taken hand embroidery and incorporated into a really fresh quilt. It takes hand embroidery and gives it new life.

The San Jose Quilt Museum was there with a display of crazy quilts. I didn’t take photos of the entire quilts. A lot of crazy quilts don’t photograph (by me) well. They are full of detail. I did take photos of the stitches I was interested in.

I took photos of the stitches that I thought were different than the ones in normal stitch dictionaries.

There was a bag called a Pasadena bag that I thought was interesting, but didn’t end up buying. I reminded myself that I have plenty of bag patterns as yet unmade. This thought inspired me to dig through my pattern box and look at the bag patterns I have bought with good intentions.

The Mancusos have a preview night before the Pacific International Quilt Festival officially opens. It is held on Wednesday. I went this year, as I have for the past several years, but this time I drove down right after work. The drive down was ok. I didn’t encounter much traffic on the way down – just a bit as I got closer to Santa Clara. I consumed an odd dinner – GF cheese crackers, a bottle of water and a NuGo bar – and listened to an audiobook as I drove. Healthy, I know.

I arrived at 7pm, which gave me plenty of time to park, get the lay of the land and sit for awhile reading my [other] book before the doors opened. I like having plenty of time. Rushing around makes me forget things. People were already waiting in line when I got there, eager to be first. I always wonder what they want to be first for. I don’t wait in that line. I sit and wait for 2 extra minutes past the opening time, then stroll in without waiting. 😉

TFQ usually comes, though her company’s budget process has been so screwed up (my words, not hers!!!) the past couple of years that we have had to change our plans last minute. This year she couldn’t make it at all. It is ok as we are looking at other shows. The PIQF format is getting a little tired for me. They need to add a display of bags and small accessories. They should change the hanging drapes to white to brighten up the hall and they should look at local talent for some special exhibits and to make the show different from all the others they host. Still, it is a large show in the area and I couldn’t miss it. I definitely need to report back to TFQ on the quilts.

My intent was to wander relatively quickly through the entire hall and get an idea of what quilts and vendors were available. I didn’t want to try to look at all the quilts or take photos of everything in the hour and a half of the Preview. I just wanted to get a sense of the show. I planned to go back Saturday and a drive-by would help me plan that day.

My first impression of the quilts was light and air. Often, the quilts on the black drapes create a dark, oppressive feeling. This year there was more light. The quilts were lighter in color and feeling, which gave the space a lighter feeling. Some vendors were moved slightly – up a booth or two, to a corner where previously they had been in the middle of the aisle. Many of the vendor booths had lighter colored quilts hanging also, though there were plenty of the repro booths filled with beiges, browns, burgundies and black.

I went to find Swoon pretty soon after I arrived. I did, after awhile, find it near the PENWAG booth and the Wearables. It is actually in quite a prime location except for the tools and supplies pushed behind it and poking out underneath the curtain. Hmpf.

As I said, I only intended to look at the quilts quickly and not take photos. I couldn’t help myself, though, and took a few. I plan to write some posts about the ones I liked later.

I also went and talked to Colleen for awhile. Her booth was filled with fun and cheerful fabrics. She also has a new technique that she will be launching tomorrow at Quilt Market. If you are reading this from Quilt Market, make sure you visit her Schoolhouse. I’d love to see a Modern Quiltmaker make an Instant Quilt from Tula Pink’s octopus fabric from the Saltwater line.

I was pleased to see that Sylvia Gregorian won one of the big prizes for her quilt. Sylvia used to be a member of CQFA and I have watched her work through what she has entered and the quilt that won definitely deserved to win.

I loved the border. I have been looking at tree quilts, especially for the width and shape of the trunk in relation to the branches.

The quilting in the border echoes the shape of the tree. The quilting is amazing all over the quilt. It looks like anyone could do it with enough patience. This quilt really inspired me. I have enjoyed watching Sylvia enter and enter every year, gradually winning bigger and better prizes. Congrats!

My overall impression was of much lighter quilts. My overall impression of a trend among the quilts was birds and squids. No joke.

 
Yes, I visited some of the vendors. Quiltin’ Cousins was there. they have a great booth and great fabric. I also saw some Scrumptious mini charms and bought them on spec. Later, it occurred to me that they would be perfect for the Midi bag, so I got more when I went back, but that is a whole story of its own. Stay tuned.

Remember to take a look at parts 1, 2 and 3.

I hope you don’t think that I made you suffer through all the other posts to get to the part in which you were really interested? I loved everything about the show and thought there was so much to post.  It finally occurred to me to post some more quilts. Hmmm…

There were a lot of great quilts at the show. I was very impressed with the quality of the quilts selected. The workmanship on many of them was outstanding. I have to admit, though, that the little devil voice in my head reminds me that I couldn’t stick my nose up to the quilts since they were hanging in trees. I am going to move through the voice and tell you that it doesn’t matter.

I don’t know anything about the judging or selection process for the quilts, but I thought, in general, from what I could see, the quilts were well selected, interesting and diverse.

Becky Parry’s Concrete Jungle is one of my favorites. I love the design, which I consider to be a modified Chinese Coins pattern. It might have another name or be a new, modern pattern. I also love the fabric. This pattern would work very well with the Philip Jacobs prints I own. Of course, I would add in others. Mrs. K and I put our cameras on super telephoto, because we wanted to see how it was made. I will study the construction a little more before I pass judgment. I love how much interest and movement there is in this piece.

I am also always, as you know, looking for interesting uses for large scale print fabrics. This is a pattern called To Natalie with Love from Quilt Bug Patterns. I wasn’t able to easily find a link to buy the pattern, but the quilt was hanging outside the In Between Stitches booth and you might contact them to find it, if you nee a pattern to make it.

What I think makes the quilt interesting is the sashing. Yes, the fabrics are, of course, interesting. No matter how interesting the fabrics are, the quilt is boring to me if it is just a bunch of big squares (or rectangles) of fabric. This quilt would be a great leaders and enders project, because you could sew the four patches using the leaders and enders method. Chunking the sashing to the blocks would also help keep the piece straight. Again, I wonder how this would look with Philip Jacobs fabric?

This sample is well pieced. The corners aren’t cut off and I like that. I mentioned chunking above, because I think sewing smaller pieces of the sashing to the ‘blocks’ would facilitate that high level of piecing. My only concern would be that chunking might add extra, possibly unattractive, seam lines. Choice of background could hide such a ‘problem.’

I notice that the fabrics chosen for the four patches do not help to distinguish the pieces as four patches. I think that is fine, as long as it was a conscious decision. Some of the darker fabrics help move the eyes around the quilt, which is great and was, perhaps, planned.

See part 1.

There were two Featured Artists at the show: Sandy Klop and Susan Else. Sandy Klop is the designer of the American Jane patterns and fabrics lines. While I am not completely on board with her color choices, I don’t hate them either and her patterns are fabulous – not the easy stuff. You have to think about her patterns.

Pretzel Party, the interlocking beauty on the right is my favorite of her quilts, though there are many that I like.

She also has something or everyone: applique’, piecing, squares, hexagons, straight seams, partial seams. She also has different skill levels. Her designs, with the confines of piecing and applique, vary widely, too. She uses interesting borders, panels, and has a quilt depicting classic game boards- playable game boards! If a person cannot find something to make, I don’t think it is because of Sandy Klop’s lack of trying.

Sandy’s quilts were everywhere. I estimated that she had 80 quilts on view. While her color palette is slighty dusky (e.g. she uses gold vs. yellow), I wouldn’t turn down most of her quilts if offered one. Her patterns are bold and bright and either are complex or look complex because of the fabrics.

I loved the diamond border in the Sowing Seeds quilt. I like the combination of pieced and whole diamonds. I also like the way the pieced diamonds fade in and out. It adds interest and made me look at the quilt a bit longer.

The picture of the Starry Crown quilt shows the benefits and frustrations of an outdoor quilt show. The blue sky, the beauty of the tree bark and the greenery all make an outdoor quilt show pleasant.

The wind, however, did not make for easy picture taking. I finally just took the photo, because the wind was not going to die down even for a minute for me to take the photo. Also, I was really just interested in the piecing of the block and the interplay of fabrics Sandy used. Both of those are covered in this photo. This isn’t a quilt with a complicated border, so I think I could replicate the layout, if I wanted. The bonus is that the wind gives you a view of the back and front at the same time.

TFQ and I saw Susan Else at the Road to California show a few years ago. I really enjoy looking at her 3D pieces. I wouldn’t necessarily include figures in my own work, but i love looking at what Susan has made. She is very willing to talk with people, too. Her stories aren’t prominent in the show, but I had her tell Mrs. K and Vicki the story of her Lifeboat piece, because it rings so true with me.

Susan explains that she, metaphorically, kept inviting people into the Lifeboat and serving them soup until her husband and daughter suggested that it might capsize. It is, for me when looking at the piece, a statement about women and how we try and take care of everyone.

Susan’s pieces are large, which is also appealing.

Susan’s pieces are also hard not to touch. I really wanted to pick up a chess piece and feel it. Fortunately, Mrs. K asked so I didn’t have to surreptitiously stroke a queen or a rook! The people in Susan’s pieces really have a lot of life. I kept looking at them thinking about the giant chess set in the Sorcerer’s Stone and how all of those pieces moved. Susan’s chess pieces deserve to move!

The Quilting in the Garden at Alden Lane Nursery 2013 was held on September 28-29, 2013. It is held this weekend (last weekend??) every year. Alex Anderson comes every year and I saw that she taught classes this year as well. My understanding is that she had a hand in starting the show.

I have been to Livermore, which is miles and miles east of me, only a few times. Most recently I visited In Between Stitches, which is a great store with a great space, when my SIL was in town a few Christmases ago and we went on a shop tour.

I took the train and Mrs. K and her cousin, Vicki, picked me up from the station. It was nice to sit back and be driven around. They go every year to look at the quilts and shop for plants.

I was surprised when we got close to the nursery as it is right in the middle of a really nice suburban neighborhood. It was at the equivalent of the end of the end of my street. I thought it was an odd place for a nursery, but realized that the houses must have been built up around it.

Parking karma was with me (us) and we got a space on the premises. We didn’t have to park on the street and walk for miles. Yes, I know it is good for me, but ….

I got excited when I walked up. The whole front of the place displayed quilts. It was a feast for the eyes. It was beautiful.

Once we walked in, everywhere I looked I could see quilts. There were, mostly, outdoor spaces, but there were a few buildings that had quilts hung up along the walls. Where quilts were not, were other gorgeous displays of plants, pottery and other inspiration worthy displays. I took so many pictures! I have included, as you can see, a few here, but there is a whole Flickr Set for your enjoyment as well.

After entering the facility (no entrance fee!), the first thing I saw was a table where Alex Anderson and hubby, John, were sitting and chatting with people, selling their wares, including The Quilt Show DVDs, and signing books. I was glad to see them and don’t know what I was surprised, but I was a little surprised. She is a such a big star and I am sure she has better things to do than sit in the sun all day and answer the same question over and over. Still there Alex was and I have to say that I was impressed!

I did not stop to chat. The clear space through which I took the photo was the only one I saw the whole time.

The nursery has giant, old oak trees on their land and the quilts were hung with clothesline and clothes pins from the trees.

The quilts look like they are low to the ground, but they weren’t, for the most part. The quilts were hung so that viewers could easily see the front and the back. Mrs. K really liked looking at the backs and we had fun discussing blocks, trying to figure out how to make the quilts, etc.

One of my favorite quilts was a turquoise Dresden Plate. I really liked the turquoise on chocolate and something about the ratios of turquoise to chocolate was very appealing.

I would have thought that all of that color, all of that complex piecing, all of the different fabrics would have been an overwhelming riot of color, but I have to say that the green of the other plants really softened the whole effect. The quilts were framed nicely by the trees and plants. Perhaps it was all of the dusty greens?

If I didn’t say, the day was gorgeous. There weren’t any clouds, but it wasn’t too hot. At one point I really needed to sit and there was a lovely patio near the pavilion with the featured artist and near the food vendor.

I was exhausted from a week away, but I am glad I went to the show and glad that Mrs. K kept nudging and encouraging and made it so easy for me to attend.

If you have thought of going to the show, but never made it, now you have a little more info to consider!

Look for part 2, which is coming soon.

I am entering the Renewed Jelly Roll Race into the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. Amy’s Creative Side is putting on the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. My entry number is 430 (though on some screens, it seems to show up as 431. Very strange). If you haven’t entered, don’t, because *I* want to win!

Me, yes. You can win next time. 😉

OK, truly, I also would like people to be exposed to my blog. Do you have a friend you can refer?

Here is the schedule:

• October 26 – 31 Linky open
• November 1 – 4 Nominations are made (this is where you nominate me)
• November 5 -8 Vote for your favorites
• November 9 Winners announced

The Renewed Jelly Roll Race is my most recent finish. I have another quilt that is nearing completion, but I am pretty excited about the RJRR! It really is a  quilt that came out of something I was going to toss. I felt like the original Jelly Roll Race quilt was a huge, ugly failure. An ugly duckling into a swan.

I became intrigued by a discussion at my Modern Quilt Guild about Jelly Roll Race quilts. I had heard of them in passing, but during the discussion, finally understood the concept. People wanted to do the quilt top at a meeting. I sew slowly, so I didn’t want to race.

I bought a Jelly Roll and got to work sewing the strips together. For a person who doesn’t like really long seams (I prefer chunking!), this project was kind of a nightmare of long seams. It was kind of a tedious job and I soon realized I had no control over color placement, no control over fabric pattern placement. Basically, I had no control.

This was a problem for me. While I like serendipity and happy accidents, this quilt was not turning into the successful result of a happy accident. It was turning out very, very badly. My fears were confirmed when the top was done.

I liked the colors. I liked the fabrics. I sincerely disliked the top.

I put it away and left it for awhile hoping it would grow on me. Periodically, I took it out, hoping I would like the top and be willing to put some work into finishing it. My heart sank every time I saw the top and I began wondering what the designers of the Jelly Roll Race concept were thinking.

I began looking at other JRR tops and all of them looked cute or interesting. ARound this time, I heard a CraftyGardenMom podcast. Tanesha was also working on a Jelly Roll Race quilt. She said she cut 20″ off the first strip to make the quilt more irregular. If I had read any directions I might have known that. I wasn’t about to rip all those seams and start over, but I did feel a spark of hope that all was not completely lost.

Last year I finished a very successful quilt from my Fabric of the Year series called Fabric of the Year 2010. This quilt is made with diamonds and I still have the Creative Grids ruler. I came upon it and the spark of hope grew brighter. Since the top was languishing, I decided to be drastic. I decided that I would cut the top up into diamonds. What is the worst that could happen? The top could not be any uglier or anymore useless than it already was.

I tried sewing the diamonds together by themselves, but VERY quickly realized that the diamonds were busy and needed their space.

I sewed the diamonds together in chunks with Pure Elements Linen as the sashing. I go into quite a bit of detail about the construction in a post from February.  I sewed and sewed and sewed. The sewing seemed never ending. Diamonds are not hard to sew together, but you do have to pay attention and there were a lot of them. I ripped out a lot of seams to make lines match up. There are a few that don’t, but I can live with them.

DH helped me with the math, but I still had quite a few diamonds leftover. I decided to put the extras on the back. You could say that the quilt is two sided, but the quilting wasn’t design with the back in mind.

The back is my typical pieced back, but I haven’t done anything like the big off kilter diamond in a long time. I kind of like it.

This is an original design and there isn’t a pattern. If you want to make one of these quilts, make a Jelly Roll Race quilt that you dislike. 😉

The coup de grace may be that this quilt was chosen to be part of the New Quilts of Northern California exhibit at the Pacific International Quilt Festival, which was held in Santa Clara, California October 10-14, 2012.

So, the bottom line is that this hideous mess was salvaged into something that I like. I want to make another Jelly Roll Race to see if I tame the technique even a little bit.

Fabrics:

• Pure Elements Linen by Art Gallery/Pat Bravo Designs
• Terrain by Kate Spain Jelly Roll
• Random purples for the back from my stash

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats

Quilted by Colleen Granger of Sew Little Time Quilting.

Sample of Links About this Quilt:

• Renewed Jelly Roll Race at the show: https://artquiltmaker.com/blog/2012/10/piqf-part-3/
• Finished Quilt: https://artquiltmaker.com/blog/2012/09/finished-renewed-jelly-roll-race/
• Renewed Jelly Roll Race Update: https://artquiltmaker.com/blog/2012/04/renewed-jelly-roll-race-update/
• The Beginning and the End https://artquiltmaker.com/blog/2012/04/renewed-jelly-roll-race-update/
• Renewed Jelly Roll Race Progress: https://artquiltmaker.com/blog/2012/02/renewed-jelly-roll-race-progress/
• Trying out backgrounds: https://artquiltmaker.com/blog/2012/02/jelly-roll-race-background/
• Jelly Roll Race Spark of Possibility: https://artquiltmaker.com/blog/2012/02/renewed-jelly-roll-race/
• Jelly Roll Race Beginning: https://artquiltmaker.com/blog/2011/10/jelly-roll-race/

I have mentioned the quilts, but not delved in, so here we go. Again, if you forgot or are new here, you can view my set of PIQF 2012 quilts on Flickr. I have been uploading them in dribs and drabs. It takes time to add the names of quilts and makers and I am not inclined to spend all my free time uploading photos. It might take me weeks to get through that, so go and look, read my blog, then go back to Flickr and look at more quilt photos later.

As I said, the Renewed Jelly Roll Race was at the show. Sharona, of New Pieces, encouraged me to enter last year and the encouragement followed me to this year. Friends gave me lots of nice comments about seeing it there. It was hanging straight, too, which was a relief. Thanks for your support, friends and all.

While I did whine a bit about the various aspects of the show in one of the previous posts, there were some good quilts there.

I saw quilts by friends. Amy won an award. Pamelala had three quilts in a new style on display. Awesome to see her artwork evolving. Maureen’s jar quilt was in a primo location. Kathleen had her Wonky 9 patch in the New Quilts of Northern California exhibit with mine. Marie had two quilts, one was a lovely pink quilt. Yes, I am feeling the pinky love lately. I do see another pink donation quilt in my future. Chris had two quilts in the show, both continuing her explorations in quiltmaking. Marci G really showed off her computerized machine quilting expertise in her quilt.

If I had to choose, I might pick this quilt to be my favorite of the whole show. I really like certain types of flower quilts and this one has the added bonus of great colors.

I like the spray of flowers. The artist also machine quilted additional leaves, etc, I think, to lighten up the piece. If she had appliqued them on, the piece would be too heavy. As a result, there is a space between the sprays and the leaves. Again, as a reward to viewers who look longer and closer, the machine quilted leaves fill in any gaps that might show.

TFQ and I often ask each other, when visiting a quilt show, what quilt made an impression on us or what quilt are we thinking about. As shocking as it may seem to you, Julie Kuto’s Civil War 9-Patch is the quilt that I thought about the most during the show.

I am not thinking about this quilt because of the fabrics, as they are obviously not my style. What I liked about this quilt was the combination of 9-patches and 4-patches. The 9-patches are about 6″. I didn’t have a ruler with me, so I didn’t measure. The 4-patches fit next to each square of the 9-patch, so they must be 2″ finished and on point. Small, yes, but not impossible and great for scraps. I would love to see a lot of people make this quilt, or the 9-patch/4-patch combination in different fabrics. It is always so fun for me to see different interpretations of quilts.

Julie does a great job with contrast in the 9-patches. I would want the 4-patches to stand out a bit more than they do , so I would pay attention to the contrast. When I say ‘stand out,’ I don’t mean jump out as the primary element of the quilt. I mean I would like the viewer to know that I went to a lot of trouble to piece 4-patches that small! I would want them to blend into the temperature of the quilt in general.

As an aside, Julie’s quilt, while not my colors, does not depress me like some quilts made in the Civil War style do.

I thought this was an interesting quilt. I think it is one of the most well done pieces of this style that I have seen.

There is the right amount of color. The black does not overwhelm, e.g. the artist paid attention to the ratios of black and white to each other, which helped make the quilt successful. There is the right amount of color. I also like it that there are some curves and that the pieced strips mimic each other, provide continuity, without duplicating each other.

The quilt looks very sheer in the white areas, in that you can see the seams. I don’t think it detracts from the overall look of the quilt, but I think I might have done something differently.

I think the piece is hand quilted, though it may just be partially hand quilted. I like the way the lines show up. They are also spaced enough to add interest without looking done by a computer. I like it that the viewer can see them pretty well (contrast of thread and fabric is good).

There are a couple of things I like about Hanami. The most is important is the flowers. The varying size of the flowers creates a lot of movement in this piece.

There are some flowers behind the more prominent top flowers made from fabric that blends into the background more. These flowers are a surprise reward for looking closer at this quilt.

I also like the stitching in the center of each of the flowers as well as around the edges. The stitching adds a lot of interest to the main flowers, which are mostly made from solids. The stitching relieves the flatness that can be a quality of solids. It is machine done and Ms. Harris did a great job.

I try to find something good in all of the quilts I view at the show even if they are not my style. I noticed that stitching is still very popular. I will venture out on a limb to say that there was more hand stitching this year than I remember. I could be wrong, though. I don’t actually count quilts with various techniques.

Here is a selection of links from past PIQFs so you can compare some quilts:

PIQF 1999

PIQF 2005

PIQF 2009

As I mentioned, my purchases at PIQF were quite modest. I need another bag pattern like a need a hole in the head, but I do want to try another one from the Chubby charmer company. I want to see if all of their patterns are as good as the “Chubster.”

I really just liked the buttons. It occurred to me that this particular color scheme would go well with the Aqua-Red Sampler. I don’t know if I will put them there, but I’ll try it out and see. Adding buttons might not be good for teaching, but it might make me happy. Make visual decisions visually, right?

I decided to participate in the pincushion challenge swap with BAMQG as a result of buying the Fig Tree pattern. There were a few things that didn’t make sense, but once I got a personal lesson from Joanna Figueroa, I was good to go. I forgot to go back to another booth and buy some crushed walnuts, but I imagine I can find nice filling somewhere else.

I didn’t buy the Marmalade charm pack at the show. See the previous PIQF post where I talk about the ‘baked goods’ problem. We went to the Granary on our way home and I bought it there.

Maureen turned me on to The Granary and I like that shop. Their prices are retail prices, but not outrageous. They have a GORGEOUS color wall. If you need to match or coordinate fabric, go there! The owner was cutting for TFQ and she remembered me buying fabric recently, which impressed me as I have only been in there 2-3 times. Great customer service! They have a nice selection of rulers and more than your average selection of notions. It is definitely worth checking out.

Since I have so many bag patterns, I figured that the clips and D rings wouldn’t go unused. I liked the size, finish and packaging. When I made the Bird Watcher Messenger Bag, I had a devil of a time finding a set even remotely suitable.

The other lovely thing that happened was that I got to see Mrs. Kristen and her sister-cousin, Vicki. We met at the show and then we sat down for a snack together and made each other laugh. As I have said a zillion times, but cannot be said too much, Mrs. Kristen is one of the loveliest people I know. I am hoarding her for myself and refuse to introduce her to you. Sorry.

OK, to be honest, I am not that sorry. She brought me gifts. I didn’t ask for anything, but she brought me gifts. 😉 She is not only a lovely person, because she makes me laugh, but also because she brings me gifts. She is supportive and generally nice to be around, too. Aside from fabric (dots and Pointillist Palette fabric), she brought me some rhubarb. I make a special rhubarb pie at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I used to be able to get canned rhubarb here, but they don’t seem to sell it anymore. I buy fresh, when I can, in the summer and stew and freeze it, but more is always welcome. The pie is scarfed down. I think I might be strung up if I didn’t make it. She and TFQ liked each other (or appeared to like each other), which was an added bonus.

As I mentioned, work sucked on Monday and Tuesday, so I’ll see if my budget allows for some more retail therapy.

Several BAMQGers got together and entered our Kona Challenge quilts as a group. My friend, Kathleen, went to the county fair today and sent me an email saying that I had won 2d place in our category!

I couldn’t believe it. I don’t make my quilts to win prizes, but when I do win a prize it is VERY exciting.

I am planning on going to the fair next weekend. I need my chocolate covered banana fix! I always spend a lot of time in the quilt pavilion and can’t wait to see what my quilt has been doing while it is out of my hands.

I don’t know what the hierarchy is for prizes, but I think this is the best prize I have won so far. I, once, won Judge’s choice and another time I won an Honorable Mention.

I am not going to become rich and famous from quilt prizes, but I can’t tell you how excited I am that I won this prize. Yay!